Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US Und.) a crowd of people, an audience.

1866		implied in working the tip
1933		Ersine Und. and Prison Sl.
1940		D. Maurer Big Con 310: TIP. A crowd of people.
1949		F. Brown Dead Ringer 45: There was a big tip in front of the posing show.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1953		F. Brown Madball (2019) 82: Not a big tip and mostly kids, [...] and if he stalled any longer some of them would start wandering off.
1962		C. Clausen I Love You Honey, But the Season’s Over 173: He also offered hot soup as a remedy for [...] a ‘bad tip’ (bad crowd) on the midway.
1972		N. Algren ‘The Last Carousel’ in Texas Stories (1995) 149: Ten o’clock, the hour when the tip begins milling from bally to bally, trying to see everything before midnight.
2012		W. Keyser ‘Carny Lingo’ in http://goodmagic.com 🌐 You’ve assembled a gaggle of freeloaders, but they're not a ‘tip’ until they're paying close and continued attention. ‘Freezing the tip’ is getting them almost immobilized...get them to move closer to see better, making it difficult for anyone to leave .

2. (US Und.) a prison gang.

1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 152: Every joint had its tips for controlling dope and prostitution and gambling.
2004		D. Grann ‘The Brand’ in New Yorker 16 Feb. 158/3: While there had always been cliques in prison, known as ‘tips,’ these men were now aligned by race and resorted to a kind of violence that had never been seen at San Quentin.